here is me and richard engel together in iraq. here is me and richard engel together in this room, on this show, talking about something that involved a map. and here is richard engel last week in syria, in extremis, along with his crew, both of we've had to work with on the show. richard and his crew managed to get out safe, and the chance to hear from him the story of what happened and what it means i'm telling you is worth stopping anything else that you are doing right now just to hear this out. this is worth it. i am glad you are back, obviously. >> i'm very happy to be here. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent. you have spent your entire adult life reporting from places that most people have never been to and do not understand well. can you just tell us logistically how this happened, where you were, and how it started? >> yes. so this map shows the border area between turkey and syria. the yellow line, everything above that is turkey. this is the gate, the crossing between turkey and syria. and we crossed through bab al ha